Litti-Chokha | Humble and Tasty

Litti-Chokha is a traditional dish eaten mainly in Bihar and Jharkhand. It is also popular in parts of Eastern Uttar Pradesh. It is a dough ball made up of whole wheat flour and stuffed with gram flour, pulses and mixed with herbs and spices and then roasted over coal or wood and often it is tossed with much ghee.

Today, there was a discussion on street foods with my schoolmates on WhatsApp. We were remembering our good old days and found that we are all still in love of the street foods. I am a street foodie. I love street foods.

Litti is being baked over fire

When the discussion was over, I was remembering another street food — Litti-Chokha. I first tasted litti-chokha when I was posted in Ranchi in 1997. I love it ever since. I eat it nowadays when I visit Ranchi. Litti shares a resemblance with the famous Rajasthani cuisine Baati except it’s spicy. There are many street stalls serving this dish in Bihar and Jharkhand. Bhola Litti, near the High Court in Doranda, is famous and quite popular in Ranchi.

60-YO famous litti-chokha vendor in Ranchi

Famous for its rustic taste, Litti Chokha is made of whole wheat flour, stuffed with sattu (powder made out of barley or Bengal gram), herbs and spices and baked over coal or cow dung cakes and then finally drizzled with desi ghee. Dry versions of Litti are also available. Chokha is a mix of grilled eggplant with chilies, onion tomato, cumin powder, coriander and turmeric powder.

The street stalls also serve litti fried or soaked in ghee — clarified butter, but I prefer the dry baked ones. Litti is served with chokha — mashed potato or char-grilled eggplant done with chilies, onion, tomato, cumin powder, coriander, and turmeric powder. Sattu is a very popular flour in the Indian states of UP and Bihar. There is no English name for Sattu, but for the convenience sake, you may call it Roasted chickpeas or Gram powder. Traditionally, Chickpeas or Chana dal (Bengal gram) is roasted in hot sand and then grind to powder. The reason for using the sand is that the individual bits get roasted evenly.

THE HISTORY

The History of Litti-Chokha is very interesting. The Magadh kingdom gave birth to yet another culinary wonder called ‘Litti’, known to be a Bihari specialty today. Litti was a staple in the court of Magadh and outside as well.

Magadh was a big empire and its capital Pataliputra used to be a very prosperous city. When the Greek ambassador Megasthenes (lived circa 350 – circa 290 BCE) visited in 302 BCE, he was stunned by Pataliputra, as Patna, the capital of the Indian state of Bihar, was then known. It had, Megasthenes reported, 64 gates and 570 towers, not to mention gardens, palaces, temples and stables full of war elephants.

I have seen the great cities of the east, I have seen the Persian palaces of Susa and Ecbatana, but this is the greatest city in the world.

Megasthenes, Pataliputra, 302 CE

Of course, Litti underwent changes as new rulers came in. With the Mughal Empire, Litti was served with shorbas and payesh; with Britishers, curry came in and so forth. But it was the classic combination of Litti-Chokha, which was a mash of roasted eggplant, onions and tomatoes, and chutney that survived.

ROLE IN FREEDOM MOVEMENT

Litti It was war food carried by the soldiers since ancient time along with dry Sattu Powder. It emerged as a ‘brave sepoy’, when the rebels survived on it during the Mutiny of 1857. Tantia Tope, Rani Lakshmi Bai, and the likes chose it as their ‘food for survival’ as it can be baked without any utensils or much water in the jungles and ravines, which meant lesser chance of being caught, and Litti could stay for as long as  two–three days.

Litti along with Aloo-chokha and chutney

HEALTHY

The best part about Litti Chokha is that it is healthy in a way that both litti and chokha are roasted and grilled. There is no frying involved in it, of course, minus the desi ghee. Litti along with chokha is a complete meal.

Today it is not only a favourite dish for people in Bihar and Jharkhand, but it has gained an international reputation. This delicious dish has found numerous fans in foreign countries as well.